What is Hypnotherapy and How Can It Help You?
Working therapeutically with focused attention, imagination and experiential processes.
Hypno-psychotherapy uses hypnosis within a therapeutic process.
Hypnosis involves a shift in attention in which awareness may become more focused, absorbed or directed towards internal experience. Within my practice, hypnotherapy is not used as a separate or formulaic treatment. Where appropriate, it forms part of a broader integrative psychotherapeutic process and offers another way of working with thoughts, emotions, imagery, bodily experience and psychological processes that may not always be readily accessible through conscious reflection alone.
What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is often described as a state of focused or absorbed attention in which awareness becomes more directed towards internal experience.
People experience hypnosis differently. For some, there may be a sense of physical relaxation; for others, increased absorption in thoughts, imagery, sensations or emotions. Deep relaxation is not necessary for hypnosis to occur.
Experiences of absorption are familiar in everyday life. We may become deeply immersed in a book, music, creative activity, a memory or our own thoughts, for example, while our awareness of other things temporarily becomes less prominent.
Therapeutic hypnosis works with this capacity for focused attention intentionally, within the context and safety of the therapeutic relationship.
What Does Hypnosis Feel Like?
There is no single way that hypnosis feels.
Some people experience a sense of physical relaxation or stillness, while others remain mentally active but notice that their attention becomes more focused or absorbed. You may become more aware of imagery, thoughts, sensations, emotions or aspects of your internal experience.
Importantly, you remain aware of what is happening and retain control throughout.
Hypnosis is not something that is “done to” you, nor does it require you to surrender control. You can speak, think, respond, move or stop the process at any time.
Your experience may also vary from one session to another depending upon how you are feeling and what we are working with.
How I Use Hypnotherapy within Psychotherapy
Hypnotherapy forms an important part of my integrative psychotherapeutic practice.
I do not view hypnosis as a standalone technique or something applied independently of the wider therapeutic process. Where appropriate, it provides another way of working experientially with aspects of psychological and emotional experience.
Sometimes we can understand intellectually why we feel or respond in a particular way, yet find that this understanding alone does not necessarily change our emotional, bodily or automatic responses.
Hypnosis can provide a different context in which attention can be directed towards imagery, emotional responses, bodily experience, internal resources and less conscious or automatic psychological processes.
How — and whether — hypnosis is used is guided by your individual experience, history, needs and therapeutic goals, and by the understanding that develops through our work together.
What Might Hypnotherapy Involve?
Depending upon the individual and the therapeutic work, hypnosis may involve:
developing greater awareness of emotional or bodily responses
working with imagery and imagination
exploring established patterns or internal responses
strengthening psychological resources and experiences of safety
working experientially with different aspects of the self
developing alternative ways of responding to thoughts, emotions or situations
Hypnosis does not replace conversation, reflection or the therapeutic relationship. It offers an additional experiential way of working when this may be useful.
What is Hypno-psychotherapy?
Hypno-psychotherapy integrates the therapeutic use of hypnosis within psychotherapeutic work.
Rather than treating hypnosis as a separate intervention, it can form part of a wider process of understanding and working with psychological and emotional experience.
Therapy may therefore include reflective conversation and exploration alongside more experiential ways of working with emotion, imagery, bodily experience, attention or less conscious psychological processes.
Different ways of working may become relevant at different stages of therapy. What we do is guided by our developing understanding of you rather than by a predetermined programme or technique.
Is Hypnotherapy Right for Everyone?
Hypnotherapy is not necessary in every session, nor is it necessarily appropriate for every person or at every stage of therapy.
You will not be expected to use hypnosis simply because it forms part of my therapeutic training and practice.
For some people it becomes an important aspect of the work; for others it may be used occasionally, or not at all. Its use is considered collaboratively and in relation to your individual needs, preferences, history and the therapeutic work we are doing together.
The initial consultation provides an opportunity for us to discuss what has brought you to therapy, what you hope to gain from the process and whether my way of working feels appropriate for you.
A Collaborative Approach
Central to my work is the therapeutic relationship.
I bring psychotherapeutic knowledge, clinical experience and training in hypnotherapy, while remaining curious about your individual experience. Therapy is not about applying a technique to you or trying to “fix” you.
Instead, we develop an understanding together of what you are experiencing, what may be contributing to or maintaining the difficulty, and what ways of working may be helpful.
This means that hypnotherapy, when used, sits within a broader process of psychological exploration, understanding and integration.
Beginning Therapy
Choosing a therapist is a personal decision, and it is important that you feel comfortable with the person you choose to work with.
I offer an initial confidential consultation in which we can briefly discuss what has brought you to therapy, what you hope to gain from the process and whether working together feels appropriate.
There is no obligation to proceed.